MANCHESTER SHOW 2010: Peachtree Audio lands in the UK with trio of new products
Update 18.10.10
Retail partners, Sevenoaks and Audio-T, have announced the Peachtree Audio Nova will be exclusively available in their stores until January 2011. The first stocks of the Nova are in shops now.
Update 17.10.10
Watch our video news report on the Peachtree iDecco iPod dock and onboard DAC, on show here at Manchester. We've already put in a request for a review sample, so hope to be testing it soon.
Published 16.09.10
US company Peachtree Audio, which specialises in products designed to make the most of digital music files, is launching a trio of amplifiers with DACs in the UK.
Whether your music is stored on a PC, Mac or accessed from iTunes, an Apple TV, Squeezebox or Sonos system, Peachtree says its products are designed "to reproduce the music the way it was intended".
The three models being released in the UK this October are the Nova (£1099.99), Decco2 (£849.99) and iDecco (£999.99).
• Nova: 80W-per-channel integrated, Class A valve amplifier with onboard ESS 900 Sabre DAC; 3 analogue, 5 digital inputs (inc 1 x USB); built-in headphone preamp; rear slot for connecting a Sonos ZP90 zone player; home cinema bypass on analogue input 3. Available in black, rosewood or cherry finishes.
• Decco2: 40W-per channel integrated amplifier with onboard DAC; Class A valve preamp; 2 analogue, 3 digital inputs (inc. 1 x USB); headphone preamp; slot for connecting a Sonos Z90; ESS 900 Sabre DAC. Available in black.
• iDecco: 40W-per-channel hybrid valve amp with 'Pure Digital' iPod dock and onboard DAC; takes digital signal from iPod and uses its own DAC for digital-to-analogue conversion'; otherwise same spec as the Decco. Available in black.
Jim Spainhour, managing director of Peachtree Audio, says: "We're a dedicated group of audiophiles who believe that consumer-friendly industrial design is just as important as the highest level of performance.
"Our products must also be futureproof, so we have added features to address the vast array of computer audio products on the market."
Peachtree Audio products will be distributed in the UK by Computers Unlimited.
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Comments
iNova available as well it seems, better (32-bit) DAC, drops the ZP90 dock for an iPod dock however.
"To be an exterior monologue you would need to be talking to somebody else... In this case Andrew may have been right, lol."
I'm talking to you lot obviously! FWIW I quite like the idea now, assuming it doesn't interfere with the wireless range of the zone network created by the ZP90 (mine is acting as the bridge to my router).
An interior monologue is where you speak to yourself.
To be an exterior monologue you would need to be talking to somebody else... In this case Andrew may have been right, lol.
If you see a photo of the inside of a Nova it looks like it would have been really difficult to make the whole case smaller (unless they made it "L" shaped of course).
Look inside pretty much any amp and there is a large amount of wasted space, Peachtree obviously decided to make it more functional.
As an iPod user (no Sonos yet) i'm more interested in the iDecco anyway which uses the space for the iPod dock - When can we expect a review on this guys?
It's an interesting idea certainly but it's still an odd one! I'm a little puzzled though, if there was that much room inside the box, why not just make the box smaller?
And Andrew, it's clearly an exterior monologue, given that it's escaped the confines of my skull...
Chaps, chaps - you're interrupting Mr Thelch's interior monologue...
Great news, finally Peachtree in UK, lovely one-box solution with a stonking int. amp and a built-in tube that can be switched on/off. Thanx team.
The bay in the back is often called a Sonos slot because the ZP90 fits perfectly inside. the digital connection is made on the outside. We didn't make it a direct connecting dock on purpose because Sonos might change the design of the ZP90 and we knew that over time additional devices like the new Apple TV would also fit inside. It's a simple and nice way to un-clutter your system, we think. We had the space so why not use it?
thanks for the nice comment, Andy! I hope it's OK for me to post here.
Personally I think it's rather clever...
Bizarre, there's a panel on the back that you take off and slide the ZP90 into it! Presumably you then have to have the digital audio cable coming out and into one of the inputs, rather than any proper docking system.
What an odd idea...
And a tube pre-amp incidentally, thought that might be worthy of a mention...
Another almost direct dollar to pound price conversion and the DAC, whilst 24-bit only goes up to 96kHz.
Rear slot for Sonos ZP90? What's that all about, what's wrong with just using the optical or coax digital connections?